This week, I tried recipes from pinterest and my friends that I already had the ingredients on hand. I only spent $50 for groceries for an entire week this way. And the recipes turned out to be the best yet! These recipes can be found on my pinterest board, “Blog Recipes.” My husband also suggested that I add more pictures of the dishes that I try so I’m doing that this week too. Be sure to leave comments if you like this!
Day #1 I made Honey Sesame Chicken. This tasted like something you would get at a chinese restaurant. I was impressed and it really didn’t take that long to make. Next time, I am going to try baking the chicken instead of frying though. Do yourself a favor and try this dish! I put ours over brown rice.
Day #2 was Tuna Noodle Casserole. This recipe was so creamy and delicious. It didn’t take long to make and we ate the leftovers all week. I doubled the recipe in order to do so. I suggest not adding the potato chips if you plan on serving the leftovers. Just put them on top at the last minute. If not, they just get soggy in the fridge. I’m adding this to my rotation.
Day #3 I made Taco Roll-ups. Ours were more of a burrito than a roll-up. I didn’t pulverize the taco meat mixture because I didn’t feel like making my blender dirty. But they really worked out and again, I had leftovers that we ate for lunch the rest of the week. It was a good recipe and I even added lettuce to ours for extra veggies.
Day#4 I got ambitious and made mock Chick-Fil-A chicken nuggets and a Super Light Blueberry Cream Pie. Both were so tasty. The nuggets were a bit time consuming and it was my first attempt at deep frying anything. I just used my dutch over with my splatter shield over top of it. It was successful! Next time, I would add a tad more powdered sugar in the recipe and I would fry the nuggets in peanut oil instead of canola. The pie took five minutes to make and I even took it over to my husband’s office for them to try. 2 out of 3 women enjoyed it! I used greek blueberry yogurt and it was really creamy. If you want a sweeter pie, use regular yogurt though. I liked the greek yogurt in it but I am used to eating and using greek yogurt in recipes.
Day #5 I had a few doctor’s appointments and I needed something quick and easy. I resorted to the crock pot and a bag of frozen meatballs for Crock Pot Meatballs. My friend gave me the recipe for the one. It only has three ingredients and I put it in the crock pot on low for 8 hours. You could also do high for 2 or 3 hours too. You just get a squeeze bottle of grape jelly and empty it on top of 2 bags of meatballs. Then you fill the jelly bottle full of ketchup and add that to the mixture. Stir and let cook. That’s it. The one I pinned on pinterest is a different recipe but it sounds really tasty. I’m going to try that one next. Again, I served them over brown rice. My husband and I thought they were a little too sweet but I only had one bag of meatballs so I modified the recipe. Our meatballs were smaller too. It’s really just a matter of trial and error.
Day #6 I bought a bag of spinach that was reduced because it was outdated. I decided to use in a pesto instead of basil. I added a bag of tortellini and Spinach Pesto Tortellini was born. I’d never made my own pesto before and I never realized how easy it was. I didn’t use pine nuts, which are traditionally found in a pesto but the recipe didn’t call for them either so it worked out. I plan on making this again and even trying the basil. It turned out to be easy, very flavorful, and the spinach really kicked up the vitamins. My husband and I both enjoyed it and we didn’t have any leftover.
This week, I’m going to try my hand (no pun intended) at making hand soap. I bought a good bar of soap at Marshall’s and I’m getting everything else I need today. My mom also had a request that I try making homemade lotion too so I might add some at-home spa type recipes along with the dinners that I try. As usual, I appreciate any and all feedback and have a great week!
